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Panthers Promote Shula, Proehl, Rogers

Shula gets Panthers' OC job; Proehl, Rodgers promoted

The Panthers have promoted quarterbacks coach Mike Shula to offensive coordinator, a source with knowledge of the situation said Friday.
Shula, 47, is expected to continue to coach Cam Newton and the rest of the team's quarterbacks. He replaces Rob Chudzinski, who left last week to become Cleveland's head coach.
The Panthers also promoted two other assistant coaches. Assistant receivers coach Ricky Proehl will take over for fired receivers coach Fred Graves, and interim special teams coordinator Richard Rodgers will run the special teams.
Rodgers, the assistant special teams coach last season, took over the unit in November after Brian Murphy was fired.
The moves leave Panthers coach Ron Rivera with two openings for position coaches – linebackers and running backs. Former Panthers running back coach Jim Skipper is in Charlotte today interviewing for his old position, according to a source.
The Panthers also have a vacancy for an offensive quality control coach after Scott Turner joined Chudzinski in Cleveland.
Shula was one of three candidates to interview with Panthers coach Ron Rivera and general manager Dave Gettleman. The Panthers also talked to former Browns coach Pat Shurmur and Cincinnati assistant coach Hue Jackson, the former Oakland head coach.
The hiring of Shula allows the Panthers to continue running the offensive system installed by Chudzinski – a mix of a vertical passing attack and a zone-read package that takes advantage of Newton's running ability.
Newton ran for 741 yards last season to become the first quarterback to lead his team in rushing since Donovan McNabb in 2000. Newton broke Peyton Manning's rookie passing record and was the AP Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2011 in first season working with Shula.
Shula, a former Alabama quarterback who coached the Crimson Tide from 2003-06, has 21 years of NFL coaching experience.
But his only previous stint as an offensive coordinator was a struggle. When Shula ran Tampa Bay's offense from 1996-99, the Buccaneers never finished higher than 22nd in total offense.
When the Bucs advanced to the NFC championship game in 1999, Shula's offense – with Shaun King at quarterback – was 28th in total offense.
--Joseph Person

I truly wanted Jackson over Shula, but I'm not convinced he'll be any worse than Chud. It's still the players who have to make the plays, so even a terrible OC could have success if he had a great offense. If he knows how to run normal NFL running plays in the first part of the season he'll appear to be a step-up. I'm not thrilled with his history, but he has been with Chud a few years and hopefully learned something.

Gotta say, I figured RR would get a sure thing rather than an inexperienced OC given that this is his last chance.

This is going to be another 2010 kind of season. We're assembling a lame-duck staff. We have to cut some big salaries. Gives Gettleman a free year basically because Rivera will take the heat for the **** show 2013 will be, and then he'll be able to bring in "his guy." The only concern I have is whether or not the ****** 2013 will have a poor effect on Cam mentally. I hope not.

The Shula hire doesn't look great on paper, but I think you guys are jumping the gun here. Until FA and the draft is over we really don't know what our team will be like. Cutting Gamble alone will take us from cap hell to cap purgatory, so all of the cap speculation could be a smaller issue than it appears.

And the only assistant I think is questionably a bad idea is ST, but better personnel could help that. I love that Skip is back, and I wonder if that's a hire to make D-Will happy. He wasnt thrilled with him leaving, so maybe it's a hope for getting him to restructure.

Shula is a bad idea too. Especially when you aren't even hiring another assistant. Just giving him the OC role on top of the QB coach role. It's a horrible idea. Like NC said, it has JR's hands all over it. If you're going to suck, don't spend a bunch of money doing so.

Cutting Gamble is a huge loss. He's a good CB. He's had his struggles staying healthy, but we need him. Especially considering that Rivera decided he hates Josh Norman, and Captain Munnerlyn is a FA (and shouldn't be starting on the outside anyways). You thought the secondary struggled this year, just wait.

FA isn't going to positively influence this roster. We have too much money tied up. Cutting Gamble won't even get us under the cap, I don't think. Then you have to pay draft picks. Then you have guys like Munnerlyn and Dwan that you would like to bring back. The mistakes of our former supposed cap guru Hurney are about to come to a head in 2013, and it is going to be bad. Very bad.

We may be overreacting a bit here. We're so quick to judge based on past failures without acknowledging that people can learn in the meantime. Not every coach/coordinator gets it right his first time around, but that doesn't mean he'll never get it right -- especially when he's inheriting a strong team and a system developed by his predecessor.

I also don't think we're being fair to JR. We complain when he sheds veteran salaries in preparation for the lockout and uncapped year, then we turn around and complain when he extends/re-signs a bunch of younger veterans to long contracts. Or is that all Hurney? I can't remember what our "party line" is on this forum. Both, I guess? There's no reason to think JR had anything to do with promoting Shula to OC. If you own a business, you don't sit on a bunch of money and accept a modest income if you think that spending money will generate more income. I think JR wants to win -- for his legacy, but also for his bottom line -- but he's not going to spend money for the sake of spending money; he's going to spend money when he thinks it will help him win. I think we're falling into the "just throw more money at it" trap. It doesn't work with project management, it doesn't work with government, and it doesn't work with running a business.

And AGAIN, as I've said many times before, us fans have NO visibility into what's going on behind closed doors and why decisions are being made. We have NO reason to think that Jackson wanted the job here or wasn't offered it.

In typical overreacting, "**** on Rivera" fashion, you talk about Rivera "[deciding] he hates Josh Norman" -- when did that happen? So Norman rode the bench the last few weeks of the season. So he had a chance to learn by watching others. I mean, I guess it's a lot like the Joe Adams situation, which means Norman will never see the field again... oh, wait.

Cutting Gamble is going to hurt, no doubt, but it's one of the easiest salary cap moves considering how well Rivera, McDermott, and crew had the CBs playing after Gamble got injured. If anything, though, with the way Norman flashed his potential this year, getting a CB later in the draft might not be as wasteful as it has been in the past. As another example, Robert McClain (you remember him) was a 7th round pick and is playing quite well for the Falcons this year, only his third season. I'd look for a 4th or 5th round pick to be spent there.

Unfortunately, I think you're 100% right about our ability -- or namely, the lack thereof -- to be active in free agency. Even if we cut Gamble, we'll have to restructure quite a few contracts. You have to figure that Gettleman and Rivera are going over roster priorities currently and that we'll hear about restructured deals and releases within the next month or so. We've discussed who has to be on that last (Beason, Williams, Anderson, etc.).

Speaking of Williams, I don't think Skipper was brought in to placate him. I think part of the reason Skipper was brought in is to help rejuvenate the running game. I wouldn't be surprised to see him working closely with Shula.

Cutting Gamble is a huge loss. He's a good CB. He's had his struggles staying healthy, but we need him. Especially considering that Rivera decided he hates Josh Norman, and Captain Munnerlyn is a FA (and shouldn't be starting on the outside anyways). You thought the secondary struggled this year, just wait.

FA isn't going to positively influence this roster. We have too much money tied up. Cutting Gamble won't even get us under the cap, I don't think. Then you have to pay draft picks. Then you have guys like Munnerlyn and Dwan that you would like to bring back. The mistakes of our former supposed cap guru Hurney are about to come to a head in 2013, and it is going to be bad. Very bad.

I really didn't think the cornerbacks struggled this season, all things considered. They've already shown they can win without Gamble, and even if we could guarantee Gamble would be 100% healthy, he's not worth $10M when we're over the cap already. I think Gamble is a top 10 CB and it'll probably be tough to see him go (especially if he stays in the division), but he's looking to be gone, unless he's willing to drop a hefty portion of his contract, which he won't, and shouldn't do.

When I mentioned FA I was saying we should wait and see what players we're able to keep and which ones end up walking/traded. Given the new GM and the cap issues, we really don't even know who is safe. Some of our best players, like Gross, Smitty, Gamble, Beason, D-Will, J-Stew, Tolbert, and R. Edwards could all be on that list.

I'm not 100% sure, but I believe cutting Gamble gets us somewhere between even and $2M over the cap, which is fixable with restructures. I see us spending one of our first three picks on a CB and then using what we have outside of Gamble and maybe even Munnerlyn.

I'm not 100% sure, but I believe cutting Gamble gets us somewhere between even and $2M over the cap, which is fixable with restructures. I see us spending one of our first three picks on a CB and then using what we have outside of Gamble and maybe even Munnerlyn.

According to numbers from Pat Y., we have $131.7m committed for 2013 right now. The cap is expected to be around $120m. We're carrying over $3.654m. If I'm reading contract information correctly, releasing Gamble would free up $7.9m.

As homestar pointed out though, we'll also need to sign draft picks and probably try to re-sign D. Edwards and Munnerlyn. If the right people restructure their contracts, the cap situation isn't as scary as it seems. Of course, releasing Gamble makes it a bit scarier, but, as you mentioned, they've shown they can win without him.

The cap is also supposed to go up in 2014, so restructuring doesn't necessarily have to hurt the team or the players.